ela curriculum guide€¦ · rochester city school district . department of english. senior high...

ROCHESTER CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM GUIDE

Course Descriptions for Grades 9, 10, 11 and 12

Curriculum Guides for Grades 9, 10, 11 and 12

Book Lists for Grades 9, 10, 11 and 12

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ROCHESTER CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Suggested Reading List 2000-2001

English I Beowulf The Blessing Way The Crossing Education of Little Tree Farewell to Manzanar The Giver House on Mango Street Illiad Narrative of Frederick Douglass Odyssey Old Man And The Sea The Pearl Romeo and Juliet West Side Story Separate Peace

Hillerman G. Paulsen L. Lowry S. Cisneros Homer J. Smith Homer E. Hemingway J. Steinbeck W. Shakespeare A. Laurents J. Knowles

English II

A Light in the Forest Animal Farm The Bean Trees Black Boy Catcher in the Rye Great Gatsby Iron & Silk Julius Caesar Lord of the Flies Merchant of Venice Nectar in a Sieve Night Robinson Crusoe Things Fall Apart

C. Richter G. Orwell B. Kingsolver R. Wright J.D. Salinger F. Scott Fitzgerald J. Salzman W. Shakespeare W. Golding W. Shakespeare K. Markandaya E. Wiesel D. Defoe C. Achebe

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English III

Adventure of Huckleberry Finn Catcher in the Rye The Crucible Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde Death of A Salesman Ethan Frome Fahrenheit 451 Fences To Kill A Mockingbird I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings A Lesson Before Dying Of Mice and Men Macbeth A Raisin In The Sun The Scarlet Letter A Streetcar Named Desire Things Fall Apart Walden

M. Twain J.D. Salinger A. Miller R. L. Stevenson A. Miller E. Wharton R. Bradbury A. Wilson H. Lee M. Angelou E. Gaines J. Steinbeck W. Shakespeare L. Hansberry N. Hawthorne T. Williams C. Achebe Thoreau

English IV - Pacesetter

Brave New World Canterbury Tales Cry, The Beloved Country A Doll’s House Grapes of Wrath Joy Luck Club Makes Me Wanna Holler Malcolm X Native Son Othello Their Eyes Were Watching God Song of Solomon

E. Huxley G. Chaucer A. Paton H. Ibsen J. Steinbeck A. Tan N. McColl A. Haley R. Wright W. Shakespeare Z. Neale Hurston T. Morrison

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ROCHESTER CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT STUDENT SECONDARY COURSE DESCRIPTION

Course Title: English I Grade Level(s): 9 Prerequisite: Successful completion of 8th grade Unit of Credit: 1

INTRODUCTION

This course description provides an overview of the course—recommended outcomes, content to be learned, the expected level of achievement and major materials that will be used. The first half of the course will emphasize listening, reading and writing for understanding. Students will receive instruction in notetaking, outlining and graphic organizing in preparation for developing essays for specific audience(s) and purpose(s). Throughout the year, a multicultural approach will be used to enhance students’ awareness of their relationship in a global community. During the second semester emphasis will shift toward reading and writing for literary response analysis.

STUDENT REQUIREMENTS (attendance, participation, etc.)

A student studying this course, you will be expected to:

attend classroom lectures and discussions regularly. complete all homework and reading assignments as assigned. maintain and complete a portfolio of written work which demonstrate competency. use thinking and decision-making skills as they apply to the study of language arts. use language arts skills as the basis for comparison and analysis of literature and content

materials.

New York State Learning Standards for English Language Arts

New York State Standard One: Students will read, write, listen and speak for information and understanding. Rochester City School District Content Standards: What a student should know and be able to do upon completion of the course.

Demonstrate an understanding of a variety of written works representative of various topics and/or themes.

Demonstrate a proficiency toward the Regents Task 1 and Task 2. Demonstrate a knowledge of state and local rubrics. Demonstrate an understanding of the grammatical and structural requirements of written

English.

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Cross-referenced New York State Performance Standards

Reading:

Identify purposes for reading. Distinguish between dictionary meaning and implied meaning of the writer’s words. Use knowledge of punctuation to assist in comprehension. Identify transitional words or phrases that make text cohesive, such as finally, in addition and

in contrast. Recognize organizational format such as hierarchical, chronological and cause/effect. Writing:

Demonstrate a proficiency for the Regents Task 1 and Task 2. Demonstrate a knowledge of state and local rubrics. Identify the purpose for writing; for example, explain, describe, narrate, persuade and express

feelings. Use tone and language appropriate for audience and purpose. Use prewriting activities; for example, brainstorming, free writing, note taking and outlining. Observe rules of punctuation, capitalization and spelling. Use correct grammatical construction. Listening:

Listen to and follow complex directions or instructions. Identify speaker’s purpose and motive for communicating information. Determine the need for more information for clarification. Recognize the use and impact of effective language. Identify their own purpose for listening. Recognize content-specific vocabulary, terminology or jargon unique to particular groups of

people. Speaking:

Use notes or speaking points to assist in delivery. Express a point of view providing facts and details in support. Use figures of speech such as similes and metaphors to make new ideas and complex

information clearer to listeners. Give directions and explain a process. Use the conventions of standard spoken English appropriate to the message and audience. Apply delivery techniques such as voice projection and demonstrate physical poise. Use virtual aids and props effectively.

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New York State Standard Two: Students will read, write, listen and speak for literary response and expression.

Rochester City School District Content Standards:

Demonstrate an understanding of the way we (as members of a global society) represent/ portray our culture through literary and nonliterary writings.

Demonstrate an ability to analyze both literature and expository text and answer data-based questions.


Writing:

Demonstrate a proficiency for the Regents Task 3 and Task 4. Demonstrate a knowledge of state and local rubrics. Write interpretive and responsive essays. Examine development and impact of literary elements (such as character, action and setting)

in literary texts and performances. Write imaginative texts. Use personal experience to create imaginative and responsive texts. Reading:

Read, view and respond independently to literary works that represent a range of social, historical and cultural perspectives.

Recognize a range of literary elements and techniques such as figurative language, symbolism and irony.

Distinguish between different forms of poetry such as sonnet, lyric and narrative. Compare film, video or stage version of a literary work with the written version. Read an imaginative text aloud to convey an interpretation of the work. Read works with a common theme and compare the treatment of that theme by different

authors. Recognize relevance of literature to contemporary and/or personal events and situations. Listening:

Interpret and respond to texts from a variety of genres, authors and subjects. Respond to authors’ reading and discussing their works. Recognize how presentation style affects emotional response of listener. Connect imaginative texts to prior knowledge, personal experience and contemporary

situations. Speaking:

Express opinions and support them through specific references to the text. Use devices such as voice, tone, volume, pitch, rate, body language, rhyme, rhythm and

repetition to create an emotional or aesthetic response.

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Ask and respond to questions and follow-up questions to clarify interpretation.

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New York State Standard Three: Students will read, write, listen and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.


Demonstrate an ability to analyze both literature and expository texts and answer data-based questions.


Reading:

Generate a list of significant questions to assist with analysis and evaluation of texts. Analyze and evaluate fiction including: the development of central idea or theme; the

development of characters and their actions; the elements of plot, such as conflict, climax and resolution; the significance of title.

Analyze and evaluate nonfiction texts including: recognize format and its significance to content; identify tone, style and use of language; determine writers’ perspectives, purposes, and intended audiences.

Determine significance and reliability of information. Analyze and evaluate poetry in order to recognize the use and effect of: rhythm, rhyme and

sound pattern; repetition. Writing:

Demonstrate a proficiency for the Regents Tasks 1, 2, 3 and 4. Demonstrate a knowledge of state and local rubrics. State an opinion by developing a thesis and providing supporting evidence, arguments and

details. Write document-based essays. Articulate one or more perspectives (such as one’s own and/or those of a special interest

group) to summarize arguments on different sides of issues. Listening:

Determine points of view, clarify positions, make judgments and form opinions. Use the perspectives of other individuals, groups, recognized experts and prior knowledge to

analyze and evaluate presentations. Recognize and acknowledge various perspectives on issues of local, national and world

concern. Speaking:

Express opinions or make judgments about ideas, information, experience and issues in literary, scientific and historic articles, public documents and advertisements.

Articulate personal opinions to clarify stated positions, persuade or influence groups or state preferences about topics.

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New York State Standard Four: Students will read, write, listen and speak for social interaction.

Rochester City School District Standards:

Demonstrate an understanding of the way we (as members of a global society) represent/ portray our culture through literary and nonliterary writings.


Reading:

Share reading experiences to build a relationship with a peer or an adult. Consider age, gender and cultural traditions of the writer. Recognize conversational tone in social communication. Writing:

Share the process of writing with peers and adults; for example, write a condolence note, get-well card or thank you letter with writing partners.

Respect age, gender and cultural traditions of the recipient. Write and share personal reactions to experiences, events and observations, using a form of

social communication. Listening

Listen for multiple levels of meaning, articulated and unspoken. Withhold judgment. Appreciate a speaker’s uniqueness. Respect age, gender, position and cultural traditions of the speaker. Speaking:

Provide feedback by asking questions designed to encourage further conversation. Respond to listener’s interest, needs and reactions to social conversations. Respect age, gender, position and cultural traditions of the listener.

DELIVERY STANDARDS (Research-based practices that will be incorporated into course)

Small-group discussion using cooperative learning techniques Inquiry model (Students as Researcher) Reader/Writer response Oral presentation

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ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES (how achievement will be measured)

Evaluation will include common assessment as well as teacher-made tests. The portfolio will provide evidence that the student fully participated in the instructional

program. A completed portfolio meeting minimal requirements will be a prerequisite for taking the

final examination and passing the course. A mid-year examination will reflect New York State’s ELA Standards and Regents

examination format (Task 1 and Task 2). A final examination will reflect New York State’s ELA Standards and Regents examination

format (Task 3 and Task 4). A portfolio of written work will reflect the student’s progress and level of inquiry throughout

the school year.

CONCEPTS AND/OR KEY TERMS YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO EXPLAIN AND USE IN CONTEXT

Writing: In addition to imaginative and personal writing, students compose expository pieces such as personal and business letters, responses to literature, persuasive essays and extended library assignments. They recognize the importance of making meaning from texts. Students take care with correctness in punctuation, spelling and grammar. Students are aware of defining purpose and audience in their own writing and manipulating language to a specific end. Students select and experiment with different written texts, depending on the purpose and audience for whom they are writing. Speaking & Listening: Students understand the dynamics of good speaking and listening. They understand the techniques used in informing, persuading and entertaining. They can choose topics, select and organize material and deliver speeches which include examples, supporting details and personal anecdotes. They are constantly aware of the changing needs of the audience. Student speakers monitor effectiveness of communication, and use suitable recovery strategies when necessary. Students critically evaluate presentations according to established rubric. Reading: Students use their growing understanding of the world and their increasing fluency in interpreting texts to read a variety of written works, e.g., novels, poems, short stories, news articles, editorials, biographies, etc. Students analyze increasingly complex texts and infer meaning from them. They recognize that texts may be interpreted differently by people according to their experiences, purposes, beliefs and interests. Students recognize that texts reflecting authors’ opinions and they can identify these and comment on them. Students can explain the characteristic features of different types of texts and can compare texts in terms of audience and purpose. They are able to select texts to meet the requirements of the task, i.e., information for both public and private discourse, considering time management and reading strategies in the process.

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CAREER COMPETENCIES (values, multiculturalism, career competencies/applied learning)

Possible career opportunities include: historian, archeologist, researcher, writer, politician, cartographer, environmentalist, economist, etc.

COURSE MATERIALS

To successfully complete 9th grade English, students will be provided with most necessary written materials and books by the District, supplemented with auxiliary materials from each high school’s existing book collection. The materials are comprised of long pieces and short pieces, both fiction and nonfiction. The District’s Values Policy is expected to be incorporated into the teaching of this course and the literature used will reflect a multicultural perspective.

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Literary Elements and Techniques Found in All Genres of Literature Notice that narratives can be fiction or nonfiction. A work of fiction tells about imaginary people and characters. A work of nonfiction, such as memoir or a biography, tells about real people and characters. Another genre, or kind of literature that might be encountered on the exam is satire, in which a writer pokes fun at or puts down someone or something. A satire can be in poetry or in prose. There are many other genres of literature, including stage plays, screenplays, fables and proverbs, but those listed above are the ones most liked to be used in Task 3 and Task 4 of the exam.

Literary Elements and Techniques

Notice that the “Your Task” portion of the writing prompt (Task 3 and Task 4) requires the student to refer in the essay to specific literary elements and techniques used in the selections. Therefore, it is important to know the literary elements and techniques. The student should be able to recognize these elements and techniques in works of literature. Image: An image is a word or phrase that names something that can be seen, heard, touched, tasted or smelled. A collection or group of images is called imagery. Example: Ice covered the ground, and a cold wind whistled through the tree limbs. Short story: A short story is a brief fictional work. It usually contains one major conflict and at least one main character. Plot: The plot is the action or sequence of events in a story. It is usually a series of related incidents that builds and grows as the story develops. Setting: The setting is the time and place in which a work of literature occurs. Setting is created by details describing elements such as costumes and scenery. Conflict: A conflict is the problem or struggle in a story that triggers the action. The conflict may be: person vs. person, person vs. society, person vs. self, person vs. nature, and/or person vs. fate. Climax: The climax is the high point, or turning point, in a story — usually the most intense point. Resolution or Denouement: The resolution or denouement is the portion of the play or story where the problem is solved. It comes after the climax and falling action and is intended to bring the story to a satisfactory end. Mood: The mood is the emotional quality of a literary work. Mood is created by imagery, word choice, events and other literary elements. Examples of moods include gloomy, sad, joyful, reflective, suspenseful and frightening.

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Subject: The subject is the thing that a work is about. Common subjects of literary works include childhood, diversity, wonder, aging, nature, individuality, love, discrimination, struggle, death, courage, hope, determination, loyalty and freedom. Theme: A theme is a main idea in a literary work. For example, a work on the subject of aging might have as its theme the idea that older people can still be young and fresh in their thinking. Character: A character is a figure who takes part in the action of a literary work.

Antagonist: The antagonist is the person or thing working against the protagonist, or hero, of the work.

Protagonist: The protagonist is the main character or hero of the story. Point of View: The point of view is the vantage point from which the story is told. In the first person point of view, the story is told by one of the characters. In the third-person point of view, the story is told by someone outside the story. Genre: Genre refers to a category or type of literature based on its style, form and content. Suspense: Suspense is a feeling of curiosity or expectation, often tinged with anxiousness, created by raising questions about the outcome of events. Tone: Tone is the attitude adopted by the speaker, narrator or author of a literary work or by a character in a literary work. Mood: Mood is the feeling a piece of literature arouses in the reader: happiness, sadness, peacefulness, etc. Voice or Style: A writer’s voice or style is the sum of all the characteristics that make his or her work sound unique. Hemingway was famous for a style that made use of short, simple sentences with few embellishments. Faulkner was famous for a style that made use of long, complicated sentences full of fancy flourishes. Flashbacks and Foreshadowing: A flashback takes the reader to an earlier part of the story. Foreshadowing hints about events to come.

Figurative Language, or Figures of Speech (expressions with a meaning other than or beyond the literal)

Hyperbole: A hyperbole is an exaggeration for effect. Example: I will love you until the end of time. Irony: Irony is a contradiction, such as a difference between appearance and reality or a difference between what is said and what is meant. In the selection from “The Death of Ivan Illych,’ it is ironic that Illych should believe that all people must die but not be willing to believe that he must eventually die.

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Metaphor: A metaphor is a figure of speech in which one thing is described as if it were another. Example: My love is a red, red rose. Simile: A simile is a type of metaphor, a comparison using like or as. Example: My love is like red, red rose. Personification: Personification is a figure of speech in which a non-human thing is described as though it were human. Example: The old car coughed, cried out once and then gave up the ghost. One kind of personification is the apostrophe, in which a speaker or character addresses an inanimate object. Example: O Wild West Wind, thou breath of autumn’s being! Symbol: A symbol is something that stands both for itself and for an idea or concept. Roses are traditional symbols of love. Synesthesia: Synesthesia is a figure of speech in which two different senses are combined. Example: Jack wore a noisy red sweater. Understatement: An understatement is an ironic expression in which something of importance is emphasized by being spoken of as though it were not important. Example: The Emperor was dealing with a few minor matters like war on his borders.

Rhetorical Techniques (unusual but literal uses of language)

Thesis Statement: A statement of the purpose, intent, or main idea of an essay. Denotation: The denotation of a word is its literal, dictionary meaning. Connotation: The connotation of a word is what it suggests or implies beyond its literal meaning. Antithesis: An antithesis is a strong contrast between two ideas. Examples: 1) “I expected joy. I found despair.” 2) “It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. . .” Parallelism: Parallelism is the use of similar grammatical forms to give items equal weight, as in Lincoln’s line “of the people, by the people, for the people.” Repetition: Repetition is the use, again, of any element, such as a sound, word, phrase, clause or sentence. Example: Rows of men marched away. Rows of men raised their rifles. Rows of men were mown down like winter wheat. Rhetorical Question: A rhetorical question is one asked for effect but not meant to be answered because the answer is clear. Example: Are we not Americans? Will we not stand up against challenges to our freedom?

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Techniques Involving Sound (commonly but not exclusively found in poetry)

Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds. Example: the bass boat, bobbing beautifully Onomatopoeia: Onomatopoeia is the use of words or phrases that sound like the things that they describe. Examples: buzz, chop, clatter, mumble, clank, meow Rhythm: Rhythm is the pattern of beats, or stressed an unstressed syllables, in a line. The following line is made up of unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllables: “Is this the face that launched a thousand ships?”

Rochester City School District Curriculum Guide 1st Semester: September – December English I

2000-2001

ELA Curriculum Required Reading

Great Source Daybook Units

Writer’s, Inc. 2000

RCSD Curriculum Writing & Portfolio

ELA Practice Assessments

Course Assessment

Writing Process Guide to PreWriting

Guide to Drafting Grade to Revising

Letter of Introduction Baseline Narrative

Essay

American Literature Baseline: New World, Old World

Cultural Roots

Common

Assessments will be given

citywide

Speaking & Thinking Speech Skills

Thinking in All . . . Thinking Logically

Task 1 One Practice

One Common Assessment

Task 1 Siberian Tiger

A Dream in Stone The Fisherman of the

Northwest Coast Greek City-states

listening task

Task 1 Folk Heroes

Common Assessment

Reading and Study Skills:

Reading Strategies Improving Vocabulary

Skills Reading Charts &

Graphs Improving Classroom

Skills

Task 2 One Practice


Narrative

Myth Writing Personal Narrative

Task 2 Vietnam Memorial

School Safety An Amble A Day

Task 2 School Uniforms

Common Assessment

Citywide Midterm – Jan.

Task 1, 2 DBQ Essay

Read myths, legends,

folk tales, two independently

read novels, one novel in class, five short stories, ten non-fiction,

and fifteen poems at the minimum

AND

Students will read Romeo and Juliet

AND

Personal Narrative

The Stores We Tell Framing & Focusing Shifting Forms:

Nonfiction & Poetry Essentials of

Reading

Proofreader’s Guide Marking Punctuation Checking Mechanics

Creative Expression

Reading Log

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Rochester City School District Curriculum Guide 2nd Semester: January – June English I

2000-2001






Course Assessment

These are reserved to

practice in class with English I

only

Common


citywide Writing About

Literature Personal Response to

Reading Writing a Book Review

Writing a Literary Analysis

Literary Terms

Task 3 One Practice


Task 3 Love in the Family

Importance of Dreams Father Influence

Comparing K’ang-Has and Machiavelli

Bones of Contention Three Thousand Dollar

Death Song

Task 3 Stereotyping

Common Assessment

Read myths, legends,

folk tales, two independently



AND

Students will read Romeo and Juliet

AND

Personal Narrative

Interpretations: A New Look at Poems

Story Landscapes Characters in Stories Connecting with

Stories

Forms of Writing

Writing About Literature

Task 4 One Practice


Task 4 “Fiction completes

us. . . ” – Llosa

Universal Truths - Faulkner

Task 4 “All good books are

alike. . .” – Hemingway Common Assessment

Citywide Final June Task 3, 4


Course Title: English II Grade Level(s): 10 Prerequisite: Successful completion of English I Unit of Credit: 1

INTRODUCTION

This course description provides an overview of the course—recommended outcomes, content to be learned, the expected level of achievement and major materials that will be used. The first half of the course will emphasize listening and writing for information and understanding, as well as reading and writing for literary response During the second semester, emphasis will shift toward reading and writing for information and understanding toward reading and writing for critical analysis.


A student studying this course, you will be expected to:

attend classroom lectures and discussions regularly. complete all homework, reading assignments as assigned. maintain and complete a portfolio of written work which demonstrates grade-level

proficiency. use thinking and decision-making skills as they apply to the study of language arts. use language arts skills as the basis for comparison and analysis of literature and content

materials.


New York State Standard One: Students will read, write, listen and speak for information and understanding. Rochester City School District Content Standards: (The following represent the continuation of those standards listed at the Grade Nine level.)

What a student should know and be able to do upon completion of the course.

Demonstrate an understanding of a variety of written works representative of the topics and/or themes studied in 10th grade.

Demonstrate a grade-level proficiency for the Regents Task 1 and Task 2. Demonstrate an ability to recognize and use state and local rubrics. Demonstrate an understanding of the grammatical and structural requirements of written

English.

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Reading:

Use specialized reference sources such as glossaries, directories and abstracts. Recognize the defining features and structures of informational texts. Interpret and evaluate data, facts and ideas in informational texts. Skim texts to gain an overall impression and scan texts for particular information. Writing:

Use both primary and secondary sources of information for research. Take notes and organize information from written and oral texts such as lectures and

interviews. Cite primary and secondary sources of information in bibliography and footnotes, using an

approved style sheet. Use charts, graphs and diagrams to support and illustrate informational text. Demonstrate grade-level proficiency for the New York State Regents Comprehensive

Examination in English, in particular Task 1 and Task 2. Analyze and use information from a document-based question task (DBQ) in a thesis support

essay. Evaluate peer writing using the state and local rubrics. Evaluate own writing using the state and local rubrics. Listening:

Interpret and evaluate information from media presentations such as documentary films, new broadcasts, taped interviews.

Synthesize information from different sources by condensing, combining or categorizing data, facts and ideas.

Recognize how tone can affect the purpose of text. Speaking:

Prepare and give presentations to a variety of audiences on a range of informational topics. Understand and recognize different methods used to engage the audience. Use various rhetorical strategies for different audiences for specific purposes. New York State Standard Two: Students will read, write, listen and speak for literary response and expression

Rochester City School District Content Standards (the following represent the continuation of those standards listed at the ninth grade level):

Demonstrate an understanding of the way we (as members of a global society) represent and portray our culture through literary and nonliterary writings.


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Writing:

Demonstrate grade-level proficiency for the Regents Task 3 and Task 4. Demonstrate and apply knowledge of state and local rubrics. Write interpretive and responsive essays to compare and contrast the treatment of literary

elements in different genres and by more than one author. Express judgments and support them through references to the text, using direct quotations

and paraphrase. Explain how the author’s use of literary devices (such as allegory, stream of consciousness,

irony) affects meaning. Use resources such as personal experience, knowledge from other content areas and

independent reading to create imaginative and responsive texts. Evaluate peer writing using the state and local rubrics. Evaluate own writing using the state and local rubrics. Reading:

Read literary criticism to increase comprehension and appreciation of imaginative texts. Recognize how the author uses tone to express an attitude toward the subject matter or the

audience. Recognize a range of literary elements and techniques such as figurative language,

symbolism and irony. Be able to explain the differences between element and technique. Recognize a range of literary techniques used by authors and how these techniques can

advance the understanding of literary elements. Distinguish between different forms of poetry such as sonnet, lyric and narrative. Analyze a film, video or stage version of a literary work with the written version. Read an imaginative text aloud to convey an interpretation of the work. Read works with a common theme and compare the treatment of that theme by different

authors. Recognize relevance of literature to contemporary and/or personal events and situations. Listening:

Identify how format and language are used in presentations to communicate the author’s message and to evoke a response.

Identify multiple levels of meaning in presentation of imaginative texts. Recognize features of literary genres in interpreting and responding to presentation of literary

texts. Employ various notetaking strategies. Speaking:

Use media to support presentation of original and interpretive text. Describe the features of the genre and the period to interpret and respond to imaginative text. Use notes to prepare an impromptu speech.

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Demonstrate an understanding of the way members of a global society represent/portray our culture through literary and non-literary writings.

Demonstrate an understanding of a variety of written works representative of different content areas.


Reading:

Generate a list of significant questions to assist with analysis and evaluation of texts. Analyze and evaluate fiction including: the development of central idea or theme; the

development of characters and their actions; the elements of plot, such as conflict, climax and resolution; the significance of title.

Analyze and evaluate nonfiction texts including: recognize format and its significance to content; identify tone, style and use of language; determine writers’ perspectives, purposes and intended audiences.

Determine significance and reliability of information. Analyze and evaluate poetry in order to recognize the use and effect of: rhythm, rhyme and

sound pattern; repetition. Writing:

State an opinion by developing a thesis and providing supporting evidence, arguments and details.

Articulate one or more perspectives (such as one’s own and/or those of a special interest group) to summarize arguments on different sides of issues.

Demonstrate a proficiency for the Regents Tasks 1, 2, 3 and 4. Demonstrate and apply knowledge of state and local rubrics. State an opinion by developing a thesis and providing supporting evidence, arguments and

details. Write document-based essays. Articulate one or more perspectives (such as one’s own and/or those of a special interest

group) to summarize arguments on different sides of issues. Evaluate peer writing using the state and local rubrics. Evaluate own writing using the state and local rubrics. Listening:

Determine points of view, clarify positions, make judgments and form opinions. Use the perspectives of other individuals, groups, recognized experts and prior knowledge to

analyze and evaluate presentations. Recognize and acknowledge various perspectives on issues of local, national and world

concern.

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Speaking:

Express opinions or make judgments about ideas, information, experience and issues in literary, scientific and historic articles, public documents, and advertisements.

Articulate personal opinions to clarify stated positions, persuade or influence groups or state preferences about topics.


Rochester City School District Standards: Demonstrate an understanding of the way we (as members of a global society) represent/portray our culture through literary and nonliterary writings.


Reading:

Share reading experiences to build a relationship with a peer or an adult. Consider age, gender and cultural traditions of the writer. Recognize conversational tone in social communication. Writing:

Share the process of writing with peers and adults; for example, write a condolence note, get-well card or thank you letter with writing partners.

Respect age, gender and cultural traditions of the recipient. Write and share personal reactions to experiences, events and observations, using a form of

social communication. Evaluate peer writing using the state and local rubrics. Evaluate own writing using the state and local rubrics. Listening

Listen for multiple levels of meaning, articulated and unspoken. Withhold judgment. Appreciate a speaker’s uniqueness. Respect age, gender and cultural traditions of the recipient. Speaking:

Provide feedback by asking questions designed to encourage further conversation. Respond to listener’s interest, needs and reactions to social conversations. Respect age, gender, position and cultural traditions of the listener.

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Small group discussion using cooperative learning techniques Inquiry model (Students as Researcher) Reader/Writer response Oral presentation

ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES

(how achievement will be measured)




examination format (Task 1 and Task 3). A final examination will reflect New York State’s ELA Standards and Regents examination

format (Task 2 and Task 4). A portfolio of written work will reflect the student’s progress and level of inquiry throughout

the school year.


Writing: In addition to imaginative and personal writing, students compose expository pieces such as personal and business letters, responses to literature, persuasive essays and extended library assignments. They recognize the importance of making meaning from texts. Students take care with correctness in punctuation, spelling and grammar. Students are aware of defining purpose and audience in their own writing and manipulating language to a specific end. Students select and experiment with different written texts, depending on the purpose and audience for whom they are writing. Students will become proficient at evaluating peer as well as their own work, using state and local rubrics. Speaking & Listening: Students understand the dynamics of good speaking and listening. They understand the techniques used in informing, persuading and entertaining. They can choose topics, select and organize material and deliver speeches which include examples, supporting details and personal anecdotes. They are constantly aware of the changing needs of the audience. Student speakers monitor effectiveness of communication, and use suitable recovery strategies when necessary. Students critically evaluate presentations according to established rubric. Reading: Students use their growing understanding of the world and their increasing fluency in interpreting texts to read a variety of written works, e.g., novels, poems, short stories, news articles, editorials, biographies, etc. Students analyze increasingly complex texts and infer

RS1-55 (08/14/09)

meaning from them. They recognize that texts may be interpreted differently by people according to their experiences, purposes, beliefs and interests. Students recognize that texts reflecting authors’ and they can identify these and comment on them. Students can explain the characteristic features of different types of texts and can compare texts in terms of audience and purpose. They are able to select texts to meet the requirements of the task, i.e., information for both public and private discourse, considering time management and reading strategies in the process.

COURSE MATERIALS To successfully complete 10th grade English, students will be provided with most necessary written materials and books by the District, supplemented with auxiliary materials from each high school’s existing book collection. The materials are comprised of long pieces and short pieces, both fiction and nonfiction. The District’s Values Policy is expected to be incorporated into the teaching of this course and the literature used will reflect a multicultural perspective.

RS1-55 (08/14/09)

Literary Elements and Techniques Found in All Genres of Literature

Notice that narratives can be fiction or nonfiction. A work of fiction tells about imaginary people and characters. A work of nonfiction, such as a memoir or a biography, tells about real people and characters. Another genre, or kind of literature that might be encountered on the exam is satire, in which a writer pokes fun at or puts down someone or something. A satire can be in poetry or in prose. There are many other genres of literature, including stage plays, screenplays, fables and proverbs, but those listed above are the ones most likely to be used in Task 3 and Task 4 of the exam.



RS1-55 (08/14/09)



Protagonist: The protagonist is the main character or hero of the story. Point of View: The point of view is the vantage point from which the story is told. In the first-person point of view, the story is told by one of the characters. In the third-person point of view, the story is told by someone outside the story. Genre: Genre refers to a category or type of literature based on its style, form and content. Suspense: Suspense is a feeling of curiosity or expectation, often tinged with anxiousness, created by raising questions about the outcome of events. Tone: Tone is the attitude adopted by the speaker, narrator or author of a literary work or by a character in a literary work. Mood: Mood is the feeling a piece of literature arouses in the reader: happiness, sadness, peacefulness, etc. Voice or Style: A writer’s voice or style is the sum of all characteristics that make his or her work sound unique. Hemingway was famous for a style that made use of short, simple sentences with few embellishments. Faulkner was famous for a style that made use of long, complicated sentences full of fancy flourishes. Flashbacks and Foreshadowing: A flashback takes the reader to an earlier part of the story. Foreshadowing hints about events to come. Allusion: Allusion is a reference in literature to a familiar person, place, thing or event. Drama: Drama is the form of literature known as play; but the drama also refers to the type of serious play that is often concerned with the leading character’s relationship to society.

Dialogue: Dialogue is the conversation carried on by the characters in a literary work. Soliloquy: A soliloquy is a speech delivered by a character when he or she is alone on

stage.

RS1-55 (08/14/09)


Hyperbole: A hyperbole is an exaggeration for effect. Example: I will love you until the end of time. Irony: Irony is a contradiction, such as a difference between appearance and reality or a difference between what is said and what is meant. In the selection from “The Death of Ivan Illych,” it is ironic that Illych should believe that all people must die but not be willing to believe that he must eventually die.

Dramatic irony, in which the reader or the audience sees a character’s mistakes or misunderstandings, but the character himself does not.

Verbal irony, in which the writer says one thing and means another. “The best substitute for experience is being sixteen.”

Situational irony, in which there is a great difference between the purpose of a particular action and the result.

Metaphor: A metaphor is a figure of speech in which one thing is described as if it were another. Example: My love is a red, red rose. Simile: A simile is a type of metaphor, a comparison using like or as. Example: My love is like red, red rose. Metonymy: Metonymy is the substituting of one word for another that is closely related to it. “The White House has decided to provide a million more public service jobs.” (White House is substituting for President.) Personification: Personification is a figure of speech in which a non-human thing is described as though it were human. Example: The old car coughed, cried out once and then gave up the ghost. One kind of personification is the apostrophe, in which a speaker or character addresses an inanimate object. Example: O Wild West Wind, thou breath of autumn’s being! Symbol: A symbol is something that stands both for itself and for an idea or concept. Roses are traditional symbols of love. Synesthesia: Synesthesia is a figure of speech in which two different senses are combined. Example: Jack wore a noisy red sweater. Understatement: An understatement is an ironic expression in which something of importance is emphasized by being spoken of as though it were not important. Example: The Emperor was dealing with a few minor matters like war on his borders. Thesis Statement: A statement of the purpose, intent or main idea of an essay. Denotation: The denotation of a word is its literal, dictionary meaning.

RS1-55 (08/14/09)

RS1-55 (08/14/09)

Connotation: The connotation of a word is what it suggests or implies beyond its literal meaning. Antithesis: An antithesis is a strong contrast between two ideas. Examples: 1) “I expected joy. I found despair.” 2) “It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. . .” Parallelism: Parallelism is the use of similar grammatical forms to give items equal weight, as in Lincoln’s line “of the people, by the people, for the people.” Repetition: Repetition is the use, again, of any element, such as a sound, word, phrase, clause or sentence. Example: Rows of men marched away. Rows of men raised their rifles. Row of men were mown down like winter wheat. Rhetorical Question: A rhetorical question is one asked for effect but not meant to be answered because the answer is clear. Example: Are we not Americans? Will we not stand up against challenges to our freedom?



Rochester City School District Curriculum Guide English II 2000-2001

1st Semester






Course Assessment

Writing Process

Guide to PreWriting

Guide to Drafting

Grade to Revising

See Packet

Letter of Introduction

Baseline Narrative Essay


practice in class with English II

only

Common


RS1-55 (08/14/09)

citywide


Thinking in All . . .

Thinking Logically

Task 1 One Practice


Task 1 Kera Vision

Cynthia Rylant History of Baseball

Athenian Oath Story of a Good

Brahmin

Task 1 B.B. King

Common Assessment


Personal Response to

Reading

Writing a Book Review


Literary Terms

Task 3

One Practice One Common Assessment

Narrative

Personal Narrative

DBQ Essay

Task 3

Generations Irrationality of War

Chorus of the Rescued To Posterity

Savitin ELA Reading &

Interpreting Poetry (Prepublication Edition)

Task 3 Duties of Fatherhood Common Assessment

Citywide Midterm – Jan.

Tasks 1, 3

Read two independently



Angles of Literacy Essentials of

Reading: Text & Subtext

Creative Expression

Reading Log

RS1-55 (08/14/09)

Rochester City School District Curriculum Guide English II 2000-2001

2nd Semester






Course Assessment


Guide to Drafting

Grade to Revising


practice in class with English II

only

Common


citywide

Reading and Study Skills

Reading Strategies

Improving Vocabulary Skills

Reading Charts & Graphs

Improving Classroom Skills

Task 2

One Practice

One Common

Assessment

Task 2

Rainforest Exhibit Theatre

Counterfeiting

Bravely Confront Truth in the Mirror

An Incident I the Ghobashi Household

Task 2

Abstinence vs. Safer Sex

Common Assessment


read novels, one novel in class, for short stories, ten non-fiction,


Shades of Meaning Poetry & Craft Words in Context New Ways of

Seeing & Knowing Lessons Stories

Teach

Forms of Writing


Task 4

One Practice

One Common

Assessment

Task 4 “Truth ” – Eliot

“. . . Worth of Literary

Work. . . ” Bryce

Journalism/History

Hersey

Recalled to Life (C. Dickens)

Task 4

“Lies” - Fox Common Assessment

Citywide Final June Tasks 2, 4


Course Title: English III Grade Level(s): 11 Prerequisite: Successful completion of English II Unit of Credit: 1

INTRODUCTION

This course description provides an overview of the course—recommended outcomes, content to be learned, the expected level of achievement and major materials that will be used. English III will place an emphasis on preparing students for the Comprehensive Examination in English.


Students studying this course, you will be expected to:

attend classroom lectures and discussions regularly. complete homework and maintain a portfolio of written work which demonstrate

competency. use thinking and decision-making skills as they apply to the study of language arts. use language arts skills as the basis for comparison and analysis of literature and social

studies content materials. have a tolerance for different views and opinions.


New York State Standard One: Students will read, write, listen and speak for information and understanding. Rochester City School District Content Standards: What a student should know and be able to do upon completion of the course.

Demonstrate an understanding of a variety of written works representative of American history.

Demonstrate an understanding of the grammatical and structural requirements of written English.


Reading:

Demonstrate an understanding of a variety of written works representative of the topics and/ or themes studied in 11th grade.

Demonstrate a grade-level proficiency for the Regents Task 1 and Task 2. Demonstrate an ability to recognize and apply state and local rubrics.

RS1-55 (08/14/09)

Demonstrate an understanding of the grammatical and structural requirements of written English.

Locate and use school, public, academic and special library resources for information and research.

Recognize unstated assumptions. Identify and evaluate the reliability and validity of informational sources. Check consistency of hypothesis with given information and assumption. Analyze and synthesize information from different sources by making connections and

showing relationships to other texts, ideas and subjects and to the world at large. Writing:

Analyze and integrate data, facts, and ideas to communicate information. Use a range of organizational strategies to present information. Apply new information in different contexts and situations. Define the meaning and understand the consequences of plagiarism. Use paraphrase and quotation in order to communicate information most effectively. Use charts, graphs and diagrams to support and illustrate informational text. Demonstrate grade-level proficiency for the New York State Regents Comprehensive

Examination in English, in particular Task 1 and Task 2. Analyze and use information from a document-based question task (DBQ) into a thesis

support essay. Evaluate peer writing using the state and local rubrics. Evaluate own writing using the state and local rubrics. Speaking:

Initiate communication with peers and adults in school and local community. Use a presentational format appropriate for the audience and purpose. Use nonverbal communication techniques to help disclose message. Respond to audience reaction and adapt presentation. Listening:

Anticipate speaker’s points and assess their validity. Recognize appropriate voice, tone, diction and syntax. Demonstrate appropriate body language as a listener. New York State Standard Two: Students will read, write, listen and speak for literary response and expression.

Rochester City School District Content Standards

Demonstrate an understanding of the way we (as members of a global society) represent/ portray our culture through literature and nonliterary writings.

Demonstrate an understanding of a variety of written works representative of the literature of American history.

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Writing:

Demonstrate grade-level proficiency for the Regents Task 3 and Task 4. Demonstrate and apply knowledge of state and local rubrics. Write interpretive and responsive essays to compare and contrast the treatment of literary

elements in different genres and by more than one author. Express judgments and support them through references to the text, using direct quotations

and paraphrase. Explain how the author’s use of literary devices (such as allegory, stream of consciousness,

irony) affects meaning. Use resources such as personal experience, knowledge from other content areas and

independent reading to create imaginative and responsive texts. Evaluate peer writing using the state and local rubrics. Evaluate own writing using the state and local rubrics. Use literary criticism to expand personal analysis of the literary text. Write imaginative texts:

use elements of imaginative text such as plot, character, setting, dialogue, conflict and suspense to engage the reader. maintain consistent point of view including first person, third person or omniscient narrator. use literary devices such as figurative language, allegory, irony, symbolism and stream of consciousness. create social, historical and/or cultural context. create multiple levels of meaning. use language and sentence structure creatively to elicit reader’s emotional response. create a personal voice.

Speaking:

Initiate communication with peers and adults in the school and local community. Speak to present interpretations and responses to imaginative texts and performances in, for

example: small/large group discussions. panel presentations. dramatic productions or reading. presentations and multimedia presentations to school and public audiences.

Use a presentational format appropriate for the audience and purpose. Listening:

Recognize and respond to historical and contemporary social, political and cultural conditions in presentation of literary text..

Recognize content-specific vocabulary, terminology or jargon unique to particular groups of people.

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Demonstrate an ability to articulate the essential elements of oral presentations.


Reading:

Form opinions and make judgments about the validity and accuracy of informational, interpretive, imaginative and persuasive texts.

Form opinions and make judgments about literary works by analyzing and evaluating texts from more than one critical perspective, such as: cultural, historical, psychological and social.

Select, reject and reconcile ideas and information in light of prior knowledge, experiences, beliefs and biases.

Make judgments about the quality of literary texts and performances by applying personal and academic criteria, such as that found in literary criticism, political, historical and scientific analyses.

Analyze and evaluate the intellectual and/or emotional impact on the reader of specific texts. Writing:

Develop critiques from more than one perspective, such as historical, cultural, social and psychological.

Analyze a variety of texts using resources such as recognized experts, knowledge from school subjects and reading and personal experience.

Use strategies designed to influence or persuade in writing speeches, editorials and advertisements.

Speaking:

Present content that is clearly organized and based on knowledge of audience needs and interests.

Present reasons, examples and details from sources cited to defend opinions or judgments. Present arguments from different perspectives. Modify content and presentation strategies based on audience response during presentation. Use visuals and technology to enhance presentation. Respond to constructive criticism. Ask and respond to questions, seek clarity or to suggest different perspectives. Speak extemporaneously to clarify or elaborate.

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Listening:

Evaluate content and organization of the presentations, applying criteria such as appropriateness and completeness of reasons, examples, details; relevance of statements of statements in relation to topic; validity of speaker’s conclusion.

Evaluate the expertise and possible bias of the speaker in order to judge the validity of the content.

Recognize the use of protocols and traditional practices of debating, public speaking, interviewing, reviewing literary works and other forms of speaking.

Evaluate impact of medium on message.


Rochester City School District Standards:

Demonstrate an understanding of the grammatical and structural requirements of written and spoken English.


Reading:

Recognize the types of language appropriate to social communication; for example, informal culture-specific, jargon, colloquialisms and e-mail conventions.

Writing:

Develop a personal voice that enables the reader to get to know the writer. Identify and model the social communication techniques of published writers. Use the conventions of electronic mail. Speaking:

Speak informally with familiar and unfamiliar people, individually and in group settings. Respect age, gender, position and cultural traditions of the listener. Use social communication in workplace settings to foster trust and build good will. Listening:

Identify own purpose for listening. Adapt listening strategies to different purposes and settings. Recognize speaker’s delivery techniques such as voice projection.

RS1-55 (08/14/09)


Small group discussion using cooperative learning techniques Inquiry model (Students as Researcher) Reader/Writer response Oral presentation Teacher as moderator


(how achievement will be measured)

A mid-year examination will reflect New York State’s ELA Standards and Regents examination format.

The Comprehensive Examination in English will test student’s ability to synthesize course features.




examination format (Task 1 and Task 3). A portfolio of written work will reflect the student’s progress and level of inquiry throughout

the school year.


Writing: In addition to imaginative and personal writing, students compose expository pieces such as personal and business letters, responses to literature, persuasive essays and extended library assignments. They recognize the importance of making meaning from texts. Students take care with correctness in punctuation, spelling and grammar. Students are aware of defining purpose and audience in their own writing and manipulating language to specific end. Students select and experiment with different written texts, depending on the purpose and audience for whom they are writing. Speaking & Listening: Students understand the dynamics of good speaking and listening. They understand the techniques used in informing, persuading and entertaining. They can choose topics, select and organize material and deliver speeches which include examples, supporting details and personal anecdotes. They are constantly aware of the changing needs of the audience. Student speakers monitor effectiveness of communication, and use suitable recovery strategies when necessary. Students critically evaluate presentations according to established rubric.

RS1-55 (08/14/09)

Reading: Students use their growing understanding of the world and their increasing fluency in interpreting texts to read a variety of written works, e.g., novels, poems, short stories, news articles, editorials, biographies, etc. Students analyze increasingly complex texts and infer meaning from them. They recognize that texts may be interpreted differently by people according to their experiences, purposes, beliefs and interests. Students recognize that texts reflecting authors’ opinions and they can identify these and comment on them. Students can explain the characteristic features of different types of texts and can compare texts in terms of audience and purpose. They are able to select texts to meet the requirements of the task, i.e., information for both public and private discourse, considering time management and reading strategies in the process.

COURSE MATERIALS

To successfully complete 11th grade English, students will be provided with most necessary written materials and books by the District, supplemented with auxiliary materials from each high school’s existing book collection. The District Values Policy is expected to be incorporated into the teaching of this course and the literature used will reflect a multicultural perspective.

RS1-55 (08/14/09)

Literary Elements and Techniques Found in All Genres of Literature

Notice that narratives can be fiction or nonfiction. A work of fiction tells about imaginary people and characters. A work of nonfiction, such as a memoir or a biography, tells about real people and characters. Another genre, or kind of literature that might be encountered on the exam is satire, in which a writer pokes fun at or puts down someone or something. A satire can be in poetry or in prose. There are many other genres of literature, including stage plays, screenplays, fables, and proverbs, but those listed above are the ones most likely to be used in Task 3 and Task 4 of the exam.



RS1-55 (08/14/09)



Protagonist: The protagonist is the main character or hero of the story. Point of View: The point of view is the vantage point from which the story is told. In the first- person point of view, the story is told by one of the characters. In the third-person point of view, the story is told by someone outside the story. Genre: Genre refers to a category or type of literature based on its style, form and content. Suspense: Suspense is a feeling of curiosity or expectation, often tinged with anxiousness, created by raising questions about the outcome of events. Tone: Tone is the attitude adopted by the speaker, narrator or author of a literary work or by a character in a literary work. Mood: Mood is the feeling a piece of literature arouses in the reader: happiness, sadness, peacefulness, etc. Voice or Style: A writer’s voice or style is the sum of all characteristics that make his or her work sound unique. Hemingway was famous for a style that made use of short, simple sentences with few embellishments. Faulkner was famous for a style that made use of long, complicated sentences full of fancy flourishes. Flashbacks and Foreshadowing: A flashback takes the reader to an earlier part of the story. Foreshadowing hints about events to come. Allusion: Allusion is a reference in literature to a familiar person, place, thing or event. Drama: Drama is the form of literature known as play; but the drama also refers to the type of serious play that is often concerned with the leading character’s relationship to society.

Dialogue: Dialogue is the conversation carried on by the characters in a literary work. Soliloquy: A soliloquy is a speech delivered by a character when he or she is alone on

stage.

RS1-55 (08/14/09)


Hyperbole: A hyperbole is an exaggeration for effect. Example: I will love you until the end of time. Irony: Irony is a contradiction, such as a difference between appearance and reality or a difference between what is said and what is meant. In the selection from “The Death of Ivan Illych,” it is ironic that Illych should believe that all people must die but not be willing to believe that he must eventually die.

Dramatic irony, in which the reader or the audience sees a character’s mistakes or misunderstandings, but the character himself does not.

Verbal irony, in which the writer says one thing and means another: “The best substitute for experience is being sixteen.”

Situational irony, in which there is a great difference between the purpose of a particular action and the result.

Metaphor: A metaphor is a figure of speech in which one thing is described as if it were another. Example: My love is a red, red rose. Simile: A simile is a type of metaphor, a comparison using like or as. Example: My love is like red, red rose. Metonymy: Metonymy is the substituting of one word for another that is closely related to it: “The White House has decided to provide a million more public service jobs.” (White House is substituting for president.) Personification: Personification is a figure of speech in which a non-human thing is described as though it were human. Example: The old car coughed, cried out once, and then gave up the ghost. One kind of personification is the apostrophe, in which a speaker or character addresses an inanimate object. Example: O Wild West Wind, thou breath of autumn’s being! Symbol: A symbol is something that stands both for itself and for an idea or concept. Roses are traditional symbols of love. Synesthesia: Synesthesia is a figure of speech in which two different senses are combined. Example: Jack wore a noisy red sweater. Understatement: An understatement is an ironic expression in which something of importance is emphasized by being spoken of as though it were not important. Example: The Emperor was dealing with a few minor matters like war on his borders. Thesis Statement: A statement of the purpose, intent or main idea of an essay. Denotation: The denotation of a word is its literal, dictionary meaning.

RS1-55 (08/14/09)

RS1-55 (08/14/09)

Connotation: The connotation of a word is what it suggests or implies beyond its literal meaning. Antithesis: An antithesis is a strong contrast between two ideas. Examples: 1) “I expected joy. I found despair.” 2) “It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. . .” Parallelism: Parallelism is the use of similar grammatical forms to give items equal weight, as in Lincoln’s line “of the people, by the people, for the people.” Repetition: Repetition is the use, again, of any element, such as a sound, word, phrase, clause or sentence. Example: Rows of men marched away. Rows of men raised their rifles. Row of men were mown down like winter wheat. Rhetorical Question: A rhetorical question is one asked for effect but not meant to be answered because the answer is clear. Example: Are we not Americans? Will we not stand up against challenges to our freedom?



Rochester City School District Curriculum Guide 1st Semester: September – December English III

2000-2001 ELA Curriculum Required Reading





Course Assessment

See Packet

Letter of Introduction

Baseline Narrative Essay


practice in class with English III

only

Common


RS1-55 (08/14/09)

citywide


Thinking in All . . .

Thinking Logically

Task 1 One Practice


Task 1 Communications

Technology

Task 1 Chuck Noll

Common Assessment


Personal Response to

Reading

Writing a Book Review


Literary Terms

Task 3

One Practice One Common Assessment

Narrative

Personal Narrative

DBQ

Research Paper

Task 3

Public vs. Private

Task 3 Teacher’s Influence

Common Assessment

NYS Regents Midterm January

Tasks 1, 3




AND

The Crucible

Fences

Creative Expression

Reading Log

RS1-55 (08/14/09)

Rochester City School District Curriculum Guide 2nd Semester: January – June English III

2000-2001 ELA Curriculum Required Reading





Course Assessment


Guide to Drafting

Grade to Revising


practice in class with English III

only

Common


citywide

Reading and Study Skills

Reading Strategies

Improving Vocabulary Skills

Reading Charts & Graphs

Improving Classroom Skills

Forms of Writing

Task 2

One Practice

One Common

Assessment

Task 4

One Practice

One Common

Assessment

Task 2

Gambling

Recycling

Task 4

“Frozen Sea” Kaka

“. . . provides experience. . . ”

Rosenblatt

Task 2

Binge Drinking

Common Assessment

Task 4

“Imperfections . . .” Bryce

Common Assessment




AND

The Crucible

Fences


NYS Regents Final - June

Tasks 2, 4


Course Title: English IV — Pacesetter Grade Level(s): 12 Prerequisite: Successful completion of English III Unit of Credit: 1

INTRODUCTION

This course description will provide you with an overview of the Pacesetter course—recommended outcomes, content to be learned, the expected level of achievement and major materials that will be used. The Pacesetter course is a capstone course that will enable students to realize how learning connects to their lives. The emphasis will be on student’s ability to situate and comprehend a range of texts in different genres and media, from different times and places and to produce new texts in their own responses to what they have read and considered. Pacesetter is about listening to different voices, understanding how one culture can be made out of many voices and finding the voices one needs to express oneself and be heard. Final assessment will include a portfolio and The College Board administered final exam. The course will stress the ability to understand and use the written word as well as an introduction to the languages of modern media. All course materials are provided by the College Board following extensive individual training. Read the attached Pacesetter Overview “Voices of Modern Cultures” and “The Course Dimensions” for a further understanding of the following.


A student studying this course will be expected to:

attend classroom lectures and discussions regularly. complete all homework and maintain a portfolio of written work which demonstrates

competency. use thinking and decision-making skills as they apply to the study of language arts.

RS1-55 (08/14/09)

THE PACESETTER UNITS

UNIT ONE: Many Selves, Many Voices: Introduction to “Voices of Modern Cultures” Students will be asked to consider their own position as cultured speakers, with voices shaped by their heritages, their experiences and their schooling. Each student will be asked to investigate how he or she is “situated” as an individual who belongs to certain groups and addresses insiders and outsiders in different voices. Audience, voice, purpose, forms are the literary elements primarily emphasized in this unit. Students will be asked to consider their present command of language and voices, invited to take pride in what they know and encouraged to strive to increase their linguistic range and depth. Students will interview a person in their community to better understand the concept of voice.

COURSE MATERIALS: poetry selections (Frost, Hughes, Cullen, etc.), excerpts from short stories and novels (House on Mango Street, The Invisible Man, The Joy of Luck Club) UNIT TWO: “Stranger in the Village”: Encountering the Other, Being the Other This unit will explore how culture and language work to include and exclude individuals. Literary works about the situation of being an “other” — a stranger in a village — or about encountering such a stranger. Students will write narratives after reading literary works studied as sample writings — as solutions to the same kind of task that the students will be performing. Students will recognize the formal features of the essay and short stories they read and understand how particular literary devices are used to achieve effect. The goal of the unit is to help students avoid feeling like strangers in the village of literature but like members of a literary culture that includes them.

COURSE MATERIALS: short essay selections, short story excerpts and excerpts from novels (Notes of a Native Son) UNIT THREE: A Medley of Voices: Investigating Culture and Voices in A Single Text In this unit, students will explore the power of a single complex text to represent a medley of voices engaged in conversation and/or struggle for cultural space. The novels are chosen because they have literary merit but also because they take up the problem of voice speaking from places separated by culture gaps. “Voice” will be considered specifically as dialect and register, speech patterns that are audible signs of the groups that use them (signs of class race educational level). The point of the unit is to help students develop their ability to read a text as coming from a specific source, a human being inhabiting a particular cultural place — and to ask how the fictional events and characters represented in that printed text connect to their own lives.

COURSE MATERIALS: teacher’s novel choice: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan; The Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston; The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, etc. (See full list in Teacher’s Manuals.)

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UNIT FOUR: Voices from the Past: Inheriting and Recreating Drama This major unit (planned to cover six weeks) in which dramatic text from the past is the center of an investigation of two tracks: a double situation of any work from the past — in its own time and in ours, the other has to do with the spoken voice and theatrical production. Othello is chosen because it was written four centuries away from our time with a history of performances and productions, it offers an opportunity to consider performance as interpretation, performances as “readings” of the play — readings that changed over time to suit different audiences in different cultures. Theatrical details such as staging, costuming, vocal interpretation and performance will be addressed. Students will present a dramatic text to an audience individually as well as in groups.

COURSE MATERIALS: a full-length play such as: Othello, by Shakespeare, supplemental texts: Renaissance Poetry (Johnson, Donn, Bradstreet, etc.), a variety of video performances of Othello

UNIT FIVE: Visible Voices: Reading Film The goal of this unit is to enable students to “read” films with a real grasp of the language of the medium. Students will study one film to understand the elements in filmmaking to achieve effects. Students will complete a “storyboard” or “shot list” of a film or video. The focus of the unit is to help students learn how the medium works from the inside, to become better readers by gaining a deeper understanding of how certain texts are composed. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence is a good example of cultural conflict and conversation because it is about two cultures that come into conflict: the old and the new West. It is also about how media, journalism in particular, deals with truth and legend. It is also offers representations of women and ethnic minorities coming to terms with the positions offered them in the culture of the American West. This unit should help students gain a better understanding of how written texts use resources that are very similar but crucially different.

COURSE MATERIALS: video: Rear Window, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, directed by John Ford

UNIT SIX: Mediating Culture: Investigating Representation of Events At the center of this unit is the study of those textual media that represent culture for us and thus influence the culture itself: especially print and video journalism, but not excluding personal accounts and oral histories. Student should understand the news media as offering non-transparent reflections on events about interpretations of events, presented with varying degrees of reliability and power. Students will be able to understand “mediation” (the pouring of raw data through a sieve of any particular medium) as a textual process that requires interpretation. Study will emphasize how an event that took place in the past is connected to their present lives, and how various media offer different versions of that event.

COURSE MATERIALS: media samples from the Sixties, or teacher choice of an event that happened nationally or locally with some significance

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UNIT SEVEN: The Changing Voice: Acknowledging Linguistic Power and Choices This unit should be built around a moderately sized text that offers the opportunity for reflection on what has been learned during the year’s work. Pygmalion has been chosen because it raises in a concrete manner the issue of whether learning to speak with another voice changes a person, cuts off from one’s roots or opens the door to greater opportunity — or all of above. The important issues of any text chosen should include: how the issues of voice and culture raised take up the same issues considered earlier in the course, making connections to specific texts from previous units; to see how the treatment of voice and culture in the chosen text addresses matters that are of concern to the students as individuals who have been changing during the course of their education and will continue to change throughout their lives. The student portfolio will also be self-assessed by students in preparation for final assessment.

COURSE MATERIALS: Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw or teacher chosen text similar context


Pacesetter assessment is fully outlined and explained in the course materials provided by The College Board and should be reviewed carefully by individual teachers. The forms of assessment include the following: teacher-developed assessment the common tasks provided with every unit the culminating assessment: timed tasks provided by the College Board the portfolio assessment: a process of assessing the student’s body of work for the best

evidence of learning in relation to Pacesetter course dimensions; portfolio assessment is conducted at regular intervals throughout the year, most formally at mid-year and at the end of the year.


See included Pacesetter charts: Making Meaning from Texts and Creating and Presenting Texts for New York Standard One-Four. (New York Standard One: Students will read, write, listen and speak for information and understanding; New York Standard Two: Students will read, write, listen and speak for literary response and expression; New York Standard Three: Students will read, write, listen and speak for critical analysis and evaluation; New York Standard Four: Students will read, write, listen and speak for social interaction)

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Writing Speaking & Listening Reading Voice Form Text Written Text Visual Text Oral Text Cultural Text Situating Text Connections Reflections Portfolio: A collection of an Individual’s best work Culture Dialect Point of View Dialogue

Context Cultural Context Historical Context Historical Investigation Dramatic Interpretation Dramatic Event Character Intent/Motivation Character Behavior Vocal Inflection Staging Collaboration Storyboard Set Design Movement Prop Set

Shot Lighting Camera Angle Sound Track Editing Medium Perspective Slant

COURSE DIMENSION: MAKING MEANING FROM TEXTS

Aspect of Performance Some suggested activities to elicit evidence of this aspect include:

Respond to texts links to own background and

experiences

personal impressions, opinions and predictions

quickwrites or taped discussions in which students provide personal responses to: a portion of the text being studied; characters, settings or language in a particular text or across texts; links between texts and student’s own background and cultures, etc.

reading logs or ongoing taped responses in which students record day-by-day reactions to the characters, events, ideas and language of texts

dialectical or double-entry journals in which students record significant passages and opposite them explain what each passage means, what the passage shows about a particular character or the impact of the passage, etc.

discussions, in pairs, small groups or as a whole class, about impressions and opinions of, or predictions for characters and events in a text

Interpret and analyze texts meaning of texts

effect of voices

influence of various elements and techniques

evaluation of texts

reading aloud a portion of a text, giving an impromptu preliminary interpretation, summary of the section or speculating how this portion of the text relates to the overall meaning of the text.

sketches, Venn diagrams or other graphic means of recording information useful in making sense out of texts

dialogues between characters, either in written or oral form, where students create a plausible conversation between characters

notes from whole-class or small-group discussions where at the end of the discussion students comment on what they consider to be the most important idea presented about the text or the most thought-provoking questions asked

portrayals of characters by presentation of dialogue from the text that exemplifies the character

notes, drafts and final versions of interpretations and analyses

Put texts in context connections between texts, people,

events, cultures and themes

influences on authors and texts

historical, cultural and geographical settings of texts

lists of similarities or differences between characters, events, ideas, themes or language in two or more texts

quickwrites, reading logs or discussions where students focus on the connection between fictional characters and real people, the setting of the text and historical or current events and the culture(s) represented in the text and the culture(s) of the author.

investigations of, discussions about or presentations related to the historical period in which an author lived or the historical period in which the text is set

notes from discussions that focus on connections between texts, the influences on authors and texts and the historical, geographical or cultural setting of texts

list of questions students would like to ask a character or an author in order to better understand the text and possibly answers they believe the character or author would likely to give

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COURSE DIMENSION: MAKING MEANING FROM TEXTS


Reflect on and evaluate making meaning from texts reflection on and evaluation of own

strategies

goals for improvement

quickwrites or reading logs where students comment on the difficulties they are encountering as they try to understand texts and ways they overcame those difficulties

paired or small group discussions and notes from the discussions about the strategies students use to help them read and understand texts including ideas about how to improve their understanding of texts in the future

double entry journals, oral presentations or taped reading where students select a difficult portion of a text and comment as they read about the strategies they are using to help them understand the text

Work with others participation in group projects

role in groups

providing and using suggestions

jigsaw discussion groups where students meet with one set of students to discuss the characters, events, ideas, setting of a text (each group discussing only one topic), then reforming groups so that each one contains one member from each of the earlier topic groups who then shares information about the topic that was discussed

daily records or periodic evaluations of group activities where the student comments on his or her contributions that help group members better understand texts

group oral readings of a portion of a text with discussion about the meaning of that portion

dramatizations or graphic representations by a group about a portion of or scene from a text

impromptu oral reports by each group about what they are learning, what is working well and what is not working

Demonstrate growth in making meaning responding to texts

interpreting and analyzing texts

use of content information to better understand texts

identification and evaluation of strategies employed in understanding texts

working with others to understand texts better

commentaries, either written or oral, about the strengths and weaknesses of a particular interpretation, analysis or response to texts

characteristics, in written, graphic, or oral form, about what makes a particular interpretation, analysis or response to texts strong

comparison between a strong and weak performance in interpreting, analyzing or responding to texts

discussion about strategies that have been developed for approaching and understanding new texts

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COURSE DIMENSION: CREATING AND PRESENTING TEXTS


Use their own voices variety of a student’s voices

student culture(s) and points of view

quickwrites or impromptu presentations in which students convey the same ideas to diverse audiences using a variety of student’s own voices

oral presentations, dramatizations or learning log entries where students revise a text they have created for another audience such as a younger sibling, prospective employer or college admission officer

dialectical or double-entry journals where students select and present a portion of a text they have created and rewrite that portion using another voice

sketches or graphic representations of various voices with written or oral texts that demonstrate how the voices are similar and different

Develop texts variety of genre, media and forms

variety of development strategies

clear focus and coherence

effective language use

skillful oral and written presentations

small-group or whole-class oral readings of a text the student has created, followed by discussion or written suggestions about ways to strengthen the text

presentations of student-created texts in more than one genre or form, i.e., historical investigation revised into a dialogue; a short story rewritten into a dramatization; an essay revised to be a letter

dramatizations, graphic representations or choral reading of student-created texts

commentaries or comparisons, either written or oral, on a portion of a text at various stages of development

Present technically sound texts language usage, structures, and

conventions in presentations and final drafts

paired oral presentations of a written text where one student reads aloud (or tapes a reading of) the other student’s text and the two students identify and discuss portions of the text that need to be revised or technical errors that need to be corrected

small-group editing reviews of student-created texts where each group is given a particular skill to review (appropriate tone, complete sentences, correct spelling, punctuation, etc.) and papers are passed among members of a group or read aloud by the group, which notes any errors, before papers are passed to the next group

oral readings of written texts where students tape a reading of their text as the final presentation that is evaluated

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COURSE DIMENSION: CREATING AND PRESENTING TEXTS


Reflect on and evaluate how own texts are created and presented reflection on and evaluation of own

processes and texts

goals for improvement

quickwrites or reading logs where students comment on the texts they are creating, difficulties they are encountering, ways they overcame those difficulties or strengths of their texts

paired or small-group discussions and notes from the discussion about the processes students use to create texts

commentaries on if and how the processes used to create various texts have changed

commentaries on how a particular text or presentation provides evidence of achievement in the course dimensions

Work with others participation in group projects

role in groups

providing and using suggestions

daily records or periodic evaluations of group activities where student comments on his or her contributions that help group members create better texts

group oral readings texts with discussion

dramatizations or graphic representations by a group about a portion of a text

group essays or group dramatizations where an entire group is responsible for creating a text and individual members comment on their contributions to the creation of the text

impromptu oral reports by each group about what they are learning, what is working well and what is not working

Demonstrate growth in creating and presenting use of own voice

well developed texts in various genres, media and forms

technical command in presentations and final drafts

identification and evaluation of processes for creating texts and texts themselves

working with others to stronger texts

commentaries, either written or oral, about the strengths and weaknesses of particular student-created texts

characteristics, in written, graphic or oral form, about what makes a particular student-created text strong

comparisons between strong and weak student-created texts or presentations

discussion about processes that have been developed for creating and presenting new texts

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Rochester City School District Curriculum Guide

English IV – Pacesetter 2000-2001

1st Semester ELA Curriculum Required Reading

Writer’s Inc. 2000

Curriculum Writing & Portfolio


Course Assessment

See Pathways Selection in Pacesetter Handbook

Writing Process

Guide to PreWriting Guide to Drafting Guide to Revising

See Pathways Selection in Pacesetter Teacher’s Manual




Thinking in All Thinking Logically


Personal Response to Reading

Writing a Book Review Writing a Literary Analysis

Literary Terms

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Rochester City School District Curriculum Guide

English IV – Pacesetter 2000-2001

2nd Semester ELA Curriculum Required Reading

Writer’s Inc. 2000

Curriculum Writing & Portfolio


Course Assessment

See Pathways Selection in Pacesetter Handbook

Writing Process

Guide to PreWriting Guide to Drafting Guide to Revising




Reading and Study Skills:

Reading Strategies Improving Vocabulary

Skills Reading Charts &

Graphs Improving Classroom

Skills

Forms of Writing


PACESETTER ENGLISH OVERVIEW “VOICES OF MODERN CULTURES” Preamble In their senior year, most secondary school students have been taking courses in English or Language Arts for 13 years. Pacesetter English is a serious attempt to provide a suitable capstone course for all those years of study—for students who expect to enter the work force when they graduate and for those who plan to continue their formal education in college—recognizing that both those expectations are subject to change. A capstone course in English should enable students to use all they have learned in their previous years of study, and it should help them to realize how that learning connects to the lives they hope to live. The goal of such a course should be for all students to attain the highest degree of literacy that they can. Literacy involves the ability to understand and to produce a wide variety of texts that use the English language—including work in the traditional literary forms, in the practical and persuasive forms and in the modern media. Whether students go on to higher education or enter the work force after graduation, their success will depend to a great extent on their ability to understand and use the English language. That is why this course makes language itself—and its use in various forms, genres and media—the center of attention. Language can be as personal as the pronouns “I” and “you”—or as impersonal as a tax form. To live as mature human beings and functioning members of society, we need to be able to communicate with others. In some cultures the ability to speak and listen carries the whole burden of communication. But our culture is organized by the most complex system of textuality the world has even known. We need speaking and listening skills to be sure, and we need to be literate in the traditional sense: able to read and write. But we also need to be “literate” across a various and complex network of different kinds of writing and various communication media. It is this complexity that has led us to the use of the word “text” in designing the Pacesetter English course. Poems, plays, stories, letters, essays, interviews, books, magazines, newspapers, movies, television shows, and yes, even tax forms, are all different kinds of texts. What the course aims at then is to increase the textual power of the students who take it: to help them learn how to read in the fullest sense of that word. Reading, in this sense of the word, means being able to place or situate a text, to understand it from the inside, sympathetically and to step away from it and see it from outside, critically. It means being able to see a text for what it is and to ask, also, how it connects—or fails to connect—to the life and times of the reader. This is textual power, but textual power does not stop there: it also includes the ability to respond, to talk back, to write back, to analyze, to extend, to take one’s own textual position in relation to Shakespeare—or to any kind of text. Shakespeare wants audience whose love of language and ability to respond to it match his own power. A tax form (like most other bureaucratic forms) wants a person who can follow directions. Every text offers its audience a certain role to play. Textual power involves the ability to play many roles—and to know that one is playing them—as well as the ability to generate new texts, to make something that did not exist before somebody make it. That—all that—is what this course is about.

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The course is also—as its title proclaims—about “voices” and “cultures.” Modern American culture is a product of its history—a history in which many voices have spoken and continue to be heard: voices from our past, voices from abroad, individual voices, institutional voices, the loud voice of the media and the still, small voice of individual conscience. This course is about listening to those voices, understanding how one culture can be made out of many voices, and finding the voices one needs to express oneself and be heard in the midst of this hubbub. This notion of “voice,” of course, is a metaphor drawn from speech—and this course will not neglect the skills of speaking and listening, but it will also stress the ability to understand and use the written word, and it will offer at least an introduction to the languages of the modern media. But let us look at the course in more detail and see how these ideas will work in action. The Course The common features of the course as it is taught in different schools should not be a particular set of works to be “covered,” but a set of certain kinds of works to be studied and responded to in certain ways. That is, the emphasis must be on students’ ability to situate and comprehend a range of texts in different genres and media, from different times and places and to produce new texts of their own in response to what they have read and considered. In order to make the intent of the course concrete, it will be described here in terms of specific works and projects, but we will also offer for every unit a set of criteria that should enable substitutions to suit local conditions. In any case, all the texts considered in the course, from the past and the present, from far away and from close to home, should be studied in such a way as to connect them to the issues and concerns of this country and its people at the present time. For example, a play by Shakespeare chosen for this course should be studied both as a voice from another culture, another time and because it addresses human concerns that are still important and alive for us. That will become clearer as we make a brief tour through the seven units that constitute Pacesetter English. The Units Unit 1: Many Selves, Many Voices: Introduction to “Voices of Modern Cultures” At the center of this unit is the student—and that student’s relation to language. Students will be asked to consider their own position as cultured speakers, with voices shaped by their heritages, their experiences and their schooling. If this were “Sesame Street,” we might say that this unit is brought to its audience by the pronouns “I,” “you” and “we.” Each student will be asked to investigate how she or he is “situated” as an individual who belongs to certain groups and addresses insiders and outsiders in different voices. Students will be asked to consider their present command of language and voices, invited to take pride in what they know and encouraged to strive to increase their linguistic range and depth. At the same time, they will be investigating the voices of a range of writers addressing the questions: “Who am I?” and “Who are we?” For this purpose lyric poems and essays will provide the most useful examples of linguistic grace and power in the service of personal

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expression and self-examination. The whole purpose of Pacesetter English and its relation to traditional English courses can be found here in Unit 1. Like traditional courses, it will present poems and essays to be read by students. But it will present these texts as examples of textual power for students to emulate. The goal will be for students to see themselves as users of language, with voices of their own that are similar to those of the writers they are reading. Confronting the same kinds of questions and concerns as those writers, students can see themselves as active partners in the writing process. In this mode, they should read not only to understand but also to emulate the text they are reading. “What can I learn from this text, this writer about how to express myself?” is a question that energizes the relationship of the student as reader to the text being read. It is that energy that should drive this whole course. Unit 2: “Stranger in the Village”: Encountering the Other, Being the Other The pronoun “they” dominates this unit, which is about the way culture and language work to include and exclude individuals. The pronouns “I” and “we” are back again, too, since the unit is about I/they or us/them relationships. Essays and stories about the situation of being an “other”—a stranger in a village—or about encountering such a stranger, will be the core readings for this unit. And, once again, students will be reading these texts in preparation for writing their own narratives about such an encounter. The experiences of James Baldwin in a Swiss village or George Orwell in Burmese town (or comparable texts) will be read not only as “literature” but also as “writing”—as solutions to the same kind of task that the students themselves will be performing. The difference between this kind of reading and traditional reading might be thought of as comparable to the difference between just watching a play or a basketball game and watching one in order to learn some moves you might make yourself on stage or on the court. The goal of the unit is to help students avoid feeling like strangers in the village of literature but like members of a literary culture that includes them as well as writers like Baldwin and Orwell. Unit 3: A Medley of Voices: Investigating Culture and Voices in a Single Text In this unit, students will explore the power of a single complex text (such as a novel) to represent a medley of voices engaged in a conversation and/or a struggle for cultural space. This unit should resemble study of the novel as it is presently undertaken in senior English classes. (This course, after all, is not being written on a blank slate but is a development of the best practice currently available.) But, for Pacesetter, this study of a novel will also be different in certain crucial respects. First, the novel must be chosen not simply because it has literary merit, but because—in addition to literary merit—it takes up directly the problem of voice speaking from places separated by cultural gaps. (This is a theme that will return in the other units as well.) In this unit, “voice” will be considered specifically as dialect and register, speech patterns that are audible signs of the groups that use them—signs of class, signs of race, signs of gender, signs of educational level. This is, in a certain sense, hot stuff. We are all sensitive to the ways in which our language marks us, enables—or disables—us in certain situations. As a country, we do not like to think of ourselves as divided into distinct classes by our speech. We attribute that kind of thing to the English. And perhaps our social classes are not so distinct as theirs. But we are not exactly a

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melting pot either. Language, with its textual power to enable or disable us, is always at work in the ways we speak and write. The purpose of this unit is to look at language working in a fictional situation that is recognizably American but in which different varieties of the American language are represented. In considering the voices within this text, students will be encouraged to “situate” the different voices. There is no voice without a group—and that group’s culture—behind it. To “situate” in this sense is to “place” a dialect or register, to ask who speaks it, where they come from and what values they share are embodied in their speech. In studying a novel, one asks about the voice or voices in which the narrative is told. Who is speaking to us? What kind of voice is that? Does it present itself as reliable, trustworthy? How does it establish its authority? How does that voice compare to the voices of characters as they are represented? Is the narrator a character? Is the narrator the author? When is each voice at its more eloquent pitch? What are its strengths? When does that voice reach limits or barriers? Do characters speak always in one voice or in more than one? How do different characters speak to one another? The length of a novel requires prolonged engagement with it by the class. One needs time to read it, time to discuss it, time to write responses to it. In this unit, the novel chosen should not be a fantastic work, but one set in a time and place that is accessible by means of other texts. The novel, too, should be seen as a voice speaking from a particular cultural site. Knowing more about the author, more about the background of the represented world, should enable students to read a text more powerfully. The point is not to find the answers to fictional questions in the author’s life or in the history of a time and place, but to use such information to ask more interesting questions about that novel. A novel that is about a known spot in the world is also always an interpretation of that spot and that world. It is a text, a voice, speaking about a place as it looks from a certain spot. In this unit, one can hardly expect students to emulate the author by writing a novel, but one can expect them to understand novels are made by human beings with ideas and feelings, strengths and weaknesses, axes to grind and values to promote. The point of the unit is to help students develop their ability to read a text as coming from some specific source, a human being inhabiting a particular cultural place—and to ask how the fictional events and characters represented in that printed text connect to their own lives, their own hopes and fears, their own values and beliefs. A good novel should help us understand more about some other place or time—but it should also bring us to a deeper knowledge of ourselves and our own place and time. One reason for studying the voices in a novel is to listen for echoes of the voices that will become ours when we assert our own textual power. Unit 4: Voices from the Past: Inheriting and Recreating Drama This is meant to be a major unit (planned to cover six weeks of the course) in which a dramatic text from the past is the center of an investigation that has two parts or tracks. One of these tracks has to do with the double situation of any work from the past—in its own time and in ours. The other has to do with the spoken voice and theatrical production. Neither of these tracks is

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simple. In a course that is built around the metaphor of voice and the concept of culture, this unit is the centerpiece around which everything else turns. We have chosen a play by Shakespeare for this model version of the course not simply because of his famous name but because of his expressive mastery of spoken English. To speak his lines with understanding is to enrich one’s own ability to use the medium of spoken English and, ultimately, one’s ability to listen, read and write as well. We have also chosen a play, Othello, in which the issues of cultural conflict are in the foreground. Othello himself is a stranger, not in a village but in one of the great city-states of his time, Venice. In the play, Shakespeare himself has made racial and gender differences the pivots on which the tragedy turns. It is also a play about reason and emotion, about evidence and argument, about truthfulness and deceit. And finally, because it is a play written four centuries away from our own time, with a history of productions and performances, it offers an opportunity to consider performance as interpretation, performances as “readings” of the play—readings that changed over time to suit different audiences in different cultures. The simple question of whether the role of this dark-skinned Moor would be played by a white man in blackface or a black man turns out not to have been so simple in certain times and places. One track of this unit, then, will give attention to “situating” the play in the history of its writing and its productions down to the present time. Another track will involve thinking about it as theater, as staging, as vocal interpretation and performance. The idea here is to get students thinking about the play the way a director must think about staging it and the way an actor must think about expressing character, not just through the voice but through the body and its movements as well. This means giving students the opportunity to put on scenes from the play themselves, to view different performances on video, to discuss and write about the play not simply as a written text but as the basis for many possible realizations. To read a play knowing that you may direct or act in a scene from it is to read actively as a participant. One project in this unit should be the keeping of an actor’s or director’s notebook, in which one reads looking for keys to the way a scene should be dramatized or a role should be played. Literature, Ezra Pound once said, is news that stays news. That is true enough, but it is also true that readers must help to renew literary texts by connecting them to their own times, their own lives. Thinking about the modern performance of a play from another time, another culture makes all these questions of interpretation real and vital, offers the student, once again, the chance to be not the passive recipient of literature but an active participant, the partner of the writer in the realization of a text. Unit 5: Visible Voices: Reading Film One of the most powerful voices in modern culture is that of film. It is an international medium, but unlike the play or the novel, it is one in which this country has played a decisive role from its beginnings a century ago to the present time. Like drama, film uses spoken language, but films have never been merely recordings of plays. They are a medium to which speech, music and sound effects all contribute, but the medium is primarily visual. The composer Richard Wagner said that he wanted each of his operas to be a “Gesamtkunstwerk” – a total work of art. Film

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often comes close to achieving that. But to understand film is to realize that it is dominated by its apparatus—by the camera and the editing table in particular. The goal of this unit is to enable students to “read” films with a real grasp of the language of the medium. To achieve this, we propose studying one film as a sort of laboratory example of how the apparatus works to achieve its effects. In our model syllabus, we have used a film by Alfred Hitchcock for this purpose, because Hitchcock is a cinema magician whose tricks are so powerful that they reveal themselves easily to an attentive “reader.” Studying such a film will be the occasion for students to learn how the apparatus works. One project associated with part of the unit will be the student’s own “storyboard” or “shot list” of a film or video. That is, students working in small groups, perhaps, will either demonstrate how one might film a scene of their own choosing, or they will use the same technique to analyze a scene from a film, a television commercial or any other appropriate text. Another very useful possibility for this part of the unit would be a film by Orson Welles, especially his version of Othello, which is very definitely a film based on Shakespeare rather than a recording of a stage performance. Even if not studied in depth, this film would make an excellent transition form a drama unit based on Othello. Like Hitchcock and like certain Impressionist painters, Welles makes the viewer very aware of the medium itself, even while using it to represent its objects with great power and eloquence. Once again, the idea in this unit is to help students learn how the medium works from the inside, to become better readers by gaining a deeper understanding of how certain texts are composed. The second film selected for this unit should be one in which the larger themes of the course are represented: voices in cultural conflict or conversation. One example that we have proposed is a late Western film by John Ford, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. This film is a good example of cultural conflict and conversation because it is about two cultures that come into conflict: the old West and the new. It is also about how the media, journalism in particular, deal with truth and legend. It also offers representations of women and of ethnic minorities, including a freed slave, Pompey, coming to terms with the positions offered them in the culture of the American West. There is much food for thought in this film, which even gives us two different versions of the same crucial event and the cultural representation of it. In discussing this cinematic text (or an equivalent), students should be expected to put their knowledge of the film apparatus to work, as they analyze how this film uses the resources of the medium to generate responses from its viewers and to make its own points about the world that it represents, just as they would consider the resources of language in reading a poem or a persuasive essay. A good understanding of how films work should help students gain a better understanding of how written texts use resources that are in certain ways very similar but often crucially different. In Hitchcock’s film Psycho, for example, a shot of Norman Bates from below, against a background of stuffed birds of prey, works much the way a verbal metaphor works. This is a course in which all the units should connect to one another and reinforce one another, with the constant goal being greater awareness of language and greater textual power for the student.

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Unit 6: Mediating Culture: Investigating Representations of Events At the center of this unit is the study of those textual media that represent culture for us and thus influence the culture itself: especially print and video journalism, but not excluding personal accounts and oral histories. The idea driving this unit is that students should understand the news media as offering not transparent reflections on events but interpretations of events, presented with varying degrees of reliability and power. To distinguish power from reliability will be a major function of this unit. The point is not to pretend to offer students some magic talisman that will enable them to tell truth from falsehood in the media but to help them understand “mediation” (the pouring of raw data through the sieve of any particular medium) as a textual process that requires interpretation. As a substantial unit in the course, this one should lead to a serious piece of work in the mode of reporting and representing: the saturation report. As in other units, students will be examining the way that this kind of textual job has been dome—and they will be doing the job themselves. For the unit to work the instructor must make a good choice about the central “event” to be studied—something important enough to have been reported on and “mediated” in different ways in different places. We think that ideally it should be an event somewhat in the past but not so far back in time that there will not be people who remember it and can talk about it. We also think that this is an occasion to select an event that was important to the people living in the part of the country where the course is being taught. It might be a national event with local impact, or a local event of importance. But it should be something substantial enough to have received many kinds of coverage and responses. In our model syllabus, we have suggested the sixties as a possible “event” for this unit, because the sixties are bout past and still accessible by interview as well as written, visual and musical texts. And this decade exists as both myth and history, side by side. An national “event,” the sixties also had their local dimensions. The whole point of this kind of study is for students to learn how an event that took place in the past is connected to their present lives, and how the various media offer different versions of that event—how, even in a single medium such as print journalism, different newspapers may offer quite different versions of the same event. The function of this unit is to enable students to refine their scenes of how events are investigated and reported, both by studying an example of reporting and by producing an investigative text of their own: the saturation report. If the unit works properly, they will be reading as reporters and writing as readers. That is, they will always position themselves both inside and outside the texts they are considering. This is meant to be a substantial unit with time for them to produce a major item for their portfolios. Unit 7: The Changing Voice: Acknowledging Linguistic Power and Choices The designers of this unit are aware that the last month of senior year is full of distractions and that therefore a course needs to offer counter-distractions of its own. That is why we have suggested building the unit around a moderately sized text that offers the opportunity for reflection on what has been learned during the year’s work, with the understanding that the heavy lifting has already been done.

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In the model syllabus we have suggested Shaw’s play, Pygmalion, which exists as a written text, as a dramatic film (with a changed ending) and as a musical film. Parts of the film, in both versions, can be used to help catch the attention of students who may have other things on their minds. The virtue of this particular play, however, is that it raises in the most concrete manner the issue of whether learning to speak with another voice changes a person, cuts one off from one’s roots or opens the door to greater opportunity—or all of the above. There are other texts that do this, of course, but the chosen text, whatever it is, should enable students to accomplish two goals: 1) to see how the issues of voice and culture raised in this text take up the same issues considered earlier in the course, making connections to specific text from previous units and 2) to see how the treatment of voice and culture in the chosen text addresses matters that are of concern to the students as individuals who have been changing during the course of their education and will continue to change throughout their lives. What voices can I understand? What voices can I use? And what do my voices have to do with who I am and what I can be? These are the questions that students should be addressing in the last month of this course. The central text should help them to focus on those questions. What we hope for the students who have taken this course is that they will be able to say that they have increased their ability to handle many American voices—without having been cut off from the voices of their parents, their past, their heritage. The promise of this country, expressed in its motto in a foreign language – e pluribus unum – “from many one” – is the promise that one nation and one people can be made out of individuals coming from all over the world, in all sorts of conditions of life. The purpose of this course is to help students recognize and use the many voices out of which the one nation and its culture are always made and remade. Robert Scholes Co-chair Pacesetter English Task Force

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THE COURSE DIMENSIONS Introduction The Pacesetter English course, “Voices of Modern Cultures,” is designed around two large areas of language arts skills that are termed “dimensions.” These dimensions, Making Meaning from Texts and Creating and Presenting Texts, encompass the skills and abilities that teachers expect their students to be able to demonstrate by the end of the Pacesetter course. Pacesetter is designed as a capstone course for high school, thus many of the skills and abilities that students are expected to be able to demonstrate by the end of their senior year are complex. Skills such as “analyzing text,” “developing and presenting texts,” “demonstrating technical command,” and “working in groups” require that strong foundations be established well before the senior year; Pacesetter should be an opportunity for students to revisit and grow in their ability to use skills and knowledge. Because the expectations for what students should know and be able to demonstrate revolve around multifaceted dimensions, no one type of assessment can effectively evaluate all of the skills and abilities students are expected to demonstrate. For this reason, Pacesetter incorporates four different types of assessment into the course in order to allow students many opportunities to demonstrate their skills. These assessments include: Teacher-developed assessments: These are activities and assessments that teachers generate to evaluate student achievement during the year. These may take many forms, from written essays to group presentations. Some may test quite discrete kinds of knowledge and skills, while others work as a way to help students think about connections among all that they are doing in the course. These assessments supplement and reinforce the Pacesetter activities. Common tasks: Each of the Pacesetter units includes at least one activity that is designed to help students demonstrate their understanding of the major goals of the unit and provide an opportunity to build a new performance to show what they have learned. While the processes for building these tasks and the products produced will vary from classroom to classroom, the general task is common in all Pacesetter classrooms. Assessment portfolios: Students select evidence form their classroom work and common tasks to build a case to demonstrate achievement of the dimensions Making Meaning from Texts and Presenting Texts. These assessment portfolios are evaluated on the aspects within a dimension and on the dimensions themselves. Culminating assessment: This program-prepared assessment is designed to provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate how well they can make meaning from texts and create and present texts given certain time constraints. During the course of a week, students will be introduced to several short texts and asked to work with others to respond to and analyze them. They may also be asked to reflect on their work form throughout the year. Students then have two 40-minute periods to prepare and present their ideas on two different writing prompts.

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Each of these types of assessment is better suited for some aspects of the dimensions than for others. For example, the aspect of the Making Meaning from Texts dimension that relates to “responding to text” can be assessed to greater and lesser degrees in all four types of assessments. In contrast, the aspect “working in groups” is difficult to document in a timed assessment or in an assessment portfolio; it is best assessed by the classroom teacher. What follows is a brief outline of where the aspects of the dimensions are likely to be assessed.

Aspects of Pacesetter Course Dimensions and Where They Are Assessed

Teacher-developed

assessments

Common

tasks

Assessment

portfolio

Culminating experience

Making Meaning

Responding to texts Analyze texts Put texts in context Evaluate texts Work in groups Demonstrate growth in

making meaning

X X X X X X

X X X X

X X X X

X X X X

Creating and Presenting Texts

Develop and use their own

voices Develop and present texts Demonstrate technical

command Evlauate and reflect on work Work in groups Demonstrate growth in

creating and presenting texts

X

X X

X

X

X

X X

X

X X

X

X

X X

Creating and Presenting Texts In order to communicate ideas orally, visually and in writing, in both informal and formal modes of presentation, students work individually and in groups to: Develop and use their own voices: Students express a range of their own voices, in their own style, reflecting their own culture and points of view, for a variety of audiences for different purposes.

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Develop and present texts: Students communicate in a variety of genres and media, drawing on a variety of strategies and using texts studied as models. They create texts that are focused and coherent, developed with a variety of facts, examples, and other supporting material drawn from a variety of resources. They revise texts to clarify meaning and enhance voice. They use the critiques of others to rethink, revise, edit and reflect on their work. They present texts orally, portraying their own voices and the perspectives of others. Demonstrate technical command: Students create and revise texts that reflect various stages of development from brainstorming to polished products. Some texts are revised and edited to meet the standards and expectations of academic and outside audiences. Texts employ grammatical usage, diction, sentence and paragraph structure, spelling and punctuation that are appropriate for the intended audience. Evaluate and reflect on work: Students evaluate their own texts in terms of criteria and feedback in order to improve both the clarity of ideas and the effectiveness of techniques. Students reflect on the processes they have used to create and present texts and what they have learned from their work about themselves as students and individuals. They evaluate their growth as students and set goals for improvement. Work with others: Students collaborate with others to design, develop and present both individual and group texts and other products. They participate in group decision making, taking on different roles at different times and ensuring that all group members are actively involved. Students accept responsibility for their agreed upon part of the project and help the group stay on task and meet schedules. They listen critically to suggestions and ideas of others and encourage group members to share divergent views. Demonstrate growth in creating and presenting texts: Over the course of the year, students demonstrate increasing skill and ease in the processes they use to develop texts and the strategies they employ to articulate and clarify their ideas. They develop a range of voices, both “school” and personal, that they appropriately utilize depending on the audience for and purpose of the text. Their communications are increasingly sophisticated and technically sound. Develop and use own voices: express a range of voices make use of a personal style reflect own culture and points of view create texts for a variety of audiences and different Develop and present texts: communicate in a variety of genres and media create texts using a variety of processes and technical strategies use as models texts that have been studied created focused and coherent texts develop texts with a variety of facts, examples and other supporting material revise texts to clarify meaning and enhance voice

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use critiques of others to rethink, revise, edit and reflect on work present oral texts that portray both the students’ own voices and the perspectives of others Demonstrate technical command: create and revise texts the reflect various stages of development from brainstorming to

polished products revise and edit texts, when appropriate, to meet expectations of academic and outside

audiences and to show command of language skills Evaluate and reflect on work: evaluate own texts to produce clearer communications comment on processes used to create and present own texts reflect on what work means, in terms of being both a student and an individual set goals for improvement Work with others: collaborate with others to produce texts and other products participate in group processes and take on different roles complete agreed-upon parts of projects on time work to ensure that all group members are actively involved and their views respected Demonstrate growth in creating and presenting texts: show increasing skill and ease in development processes show increasing command for articulating and clarifying ideas demonstrate a growing range of voices, both “school” and personal, that are used

appropriately depending on the audience for and purpose of the text create and present communications that are increasingly sophisticated and technically sound Making Meaning from Texts In order to create understanding of written, oral and visual texts from a variety of times and cultures in a variety of media and genres, students work individually and in groups to: Respond to texts: Students respond to the text in terms of their own cultural and personal backgrounds and make connections with personal experiences. Students tell what they think the overall effect or point of the text is—the ideas, views, emotions and story. They make predictions and inferences and express personal opinions about characters, events, ideas and the text as a whole. Analyze texts: Students analyze the effect of the voices, perspectives or points of view of the text. Students also show how a variety of factors—such as form, organization, imagery, diction, selection of details and examples and use of music or visual text—influence the overall meaning of the text. Students determine, from a variety of facts, examples and other resources, what is relevant to a theme or topic. When appropriate, students explain critics’ use of criteria or

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standards to evaluate the effectiveness of the text or presentation and discuss how critics’ reviews enhance understanding of the text. Put texts in context: Students discuss the ways in which cultural and political factors influenced the creation of the text and the influence of the historical and cultural background of the author on the text. They explain the significance to the overall meaning of the text of the historical and cultural time period portrayed. They make connections between the text and the other texts, characters, situations and cultures. They discuss the ways in which the text is related to recurring themes they have encountered. Evaluate and reflect on work: Students evaluate and reflect on processes they have used to make meaning from texts, showing insight about how their own work in whole class, group and individual activities has helped them understand a variety of texts. They reflect on what they have learned about themselves as students and individuals who are willing and able to create their own meaning about texts. They evaluate their growth as students and set goals for improvement. Work with others: Students collaborate with others in activities that help them understand texts. They participate in group decision making, taking on different roles at different times and ensuring that all group members are actively involved. Students accept responsibility for their agreed-upon part of the project, and help the group stay on task and meet schedules. They listen critically to suggestions and ideas of others and encourage group members to share divergent views. They assess texts of their peers in terms of both content and technique and make constructive suggestions for improvement. Demonstrate growth in making meaning: Students demonstrate increasingly willingness to respond to texts thoughtfully and openly, to analyze texts in ways that contribute to understanding, to place texts in various contexts that enhance meaning, to evaluate and reflect on their own work in making meaning and to work collaboratively with others. Respond to texts: respond to texts in terms of own cultural and personal background make connections between texts and personal experiences tell what the overall effect or point of the text is make predictions and inferences reposed to text in terms of personal opinions Analyze texts: analyze the effect of voices, perspectives or points of view show how factors such as form, organization, imagery, diction, selection of details and

examples and use music and visual text influence overall meaning determine, from a variety of facts, examples and other resources what is relevant to a theme

or topic explain critics’ use of criteria and standards and how critics’ reviews enhance understanding

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Put texts in context: discuss how cultural and political factors influence creation of text discuss influence of historical and cultural background of the author on text explain significance of historical and cultural time period portrayed make connections between the text and other texts, characters, situations and cultures discuss the ways the text is related to recurring themes. Evaluate and reflect on work: evaluate and reflect on processes used to make meaning from texts reflect on what has been learned about self as a student and as an individual willing and able

to create own meaning from texts evaluate growth as students and set goals for improvement Work with others: collaborate with others in activities that help make meaning about texts participate in group decision making take different roles at different times help ensure that all group members are actively involved accept responsibility for agreed-upon part of project, for keeping group on task, and for

meeting schedules listen critically to suggestions and ideas of others and encourage others to share divergent

views assess texts of peers and make constructive suggestions for improvement Demonstrate growth in making meaning: demonstrate increasing willingness to respond to texts thoughtfully and openly grow in ability to analyze texts in ways that contribute to meaning increase ability to place texts in context to enhance meaning evaluate and reflect on ability and willingness to create own meaning from texts develop increasingly effective skills for collaborative work

ela curriculum guide€¦ · rochester city school district . department of english. senior high...

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